Tag: Poland

Lesson Plans World History II 13a: Collapse of Communism

Standard WH II: Lesson Plans World History II 13a-The student will demonstrate knowledge of major events in the second half of the twentieth century by

Objectives: Explaining key events of the Cold War, including the competition between the American and Soviet economic and political systems and the causes of the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Note: I tend to break SOL 13a into two parts. One part is on the causes of the Cold War. The other is on the causes of the Cold War ending.

Lesson Plans World History II 13a-To analyze the collapse of Communism I put students into groups. They analyze the documents below and complete the questions. Students rotate around to different stations, analyze the documents, and complete the questions.

Essential Knowledge:Economic and political causes of World War II • Aggression by the totalitarian powers of Germany, Italy, Japan • Nationalism • Failures of the Treaty of Versailles • Weakness of the League of Nations • Appeasement • Tendencies towards isolationism and pacifism in Europe and the United States

Major events of the war (1939–1945) • German invasion of Poland • Fall of France • Battle of Britain • German invasion of the Soviet Union • Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor • D-Day (Allied invasion of Europe) • Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Major leaders of the war • Franklin D. Roosevelt: U.S. president • Harry Truman: U.S. president after death of President Roosevelt • Dwight D. Eisenhower: Allied commander in Europe • Douglas MacArthur: U.S. general • George C. Marshall: U.S. general • Winston Churchill: British prime minister • Joseph Stalin: Soviet dictator • Adolf Hitler: Nazi dictator of Germany • Hideki Tojo: Japanese general • Hirohito: Emperor of Japan